Caitlin MacNeal

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Caitlin MacNeal is a News Writer based in Washington, D.C. Before joining TPM, Caitlin interned and wrote for the Huffington Post, the Sunlight Foundation and Slate. She is a graduate of Georgetown University.

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Caitlin

The National Security Agency on Friday told Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that it cannot reveal whether the agency has been targeting members of Congress in its metadata collection because doing so would violate privacy provisions accorded to civilians in the program, the Huffington Post reported Tuesday.

"Among those protections is the condition that NSA can query the metadata only based on phone numbers reasonably suspected to be associated with specific foreign terrorist groups," NSA chief Keith Alexander wrote in a letter to Sanders.

"For that reason," he added, "NSA cannot lawfully search to determine if any records NSA has received under the program have included metadata of the phone calls of any member of Congress, other American elected officials, or any other American without the predicate."

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday said that he wished President Obama would cheat on First Lady Michelle Obama because it would make for a better scandal than the controversy surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last year.

"Why can't we have Obama running around on Michelle or something?" he said on his radio show, as recorded by Mediaite. "Wouldn't that be a much better scandal than Christie and bridge lane closures, for crying out loud?"

Wisconsin state Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R) on Tuesday said that he will pull the controversial child support bill that he drafted with the help of a wealthy GOP donor.

"While I am frustrated by the amount of misinformation the bill has encountered, I believe a fair and equitable child support system, one that fundamentally recognizes the value of both parents in the upbringing of a child, is an important issue and one that warrants serious conversation," he said in a statement.

The New Jersey firm that was awarded a contract to create the campaign for Jersey Shore tourism following Hurricane Sandy is insisting that it did not pitch an appearance by Gov. Chris Christie (R) in its ads. Rather, the firm said, it proposed a long list of state icons including Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi.

Some have argued that MWW was awarded the contract, which was $2.2 million higher than the lowest bidder's proposal, because it included Christie in the ads -- an appearance that increased his exposure during re-election last year. However the firm put out a statement Monday denying that Christie's name was in the original pitch.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Monday vetoed a bill that would have allowed people who had a sex change procedure to modify their gender on their birth certificates, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

State law already required the Health Department to issue new birth certificates to people who have undergone sex change surgery, but this legislation would have extended that ability to people who have undergone hormone therapy.